Greetings to all. I am a new member the forum and was going to buy a puppy from a first time breeder and ended up backing out of the deal for a number of reasons - mainly the situation didn't seem right, kept getting worse, and I felt VERY uncomfortable getting the pup from them even though I wanted him very badly. I apologize for the upcoming, possibly incoherent, babble but I have a lot of random thoughts regarding this issue/search and I promise I'm not trolling so please be kind to my random-thought babble.
Currently I am looking for a puppy at a reasonable price(~$1000) without having to sacrifice quality. I've been lurking in these forums, as well as others, and have come to the conclusion that most of the members only really support breeders that charge a ridiculous amount of money for a "pet" puppy. I've gone through the list on DPCA of breeders and contacted most of them in my area and I can't believe that they charge $1,500+ for a pet. A lot of the breeders in my area have titled dogs, Good/Excellent OFA ratings posted, vWD clear, etc which is great for the breed but NOT great for the consumer's pocket book. I understand that these breeders have spared no expense along with an invaluable amount of time to do the right thing by the breed but how can the average Joe afford to get one of these dogs as purely a pet?
Lets say, hypothetically, all the Z-factored dogs were gone and we finally get rid of that pesky vWD problem, and hips/elbows/eyes were all certified excellent... the best possible scenario for the Doberman. That would leave the basically the dogs of an even higher quality remaining that would drive the price up even further making the Doberman even more out of reach for the average person, right?
My question (sorry for the babble) what is considered an acceptable dog that doesn't come from a breeder that has basically run the gambit on their dogs? Is it wrong to buy from a breeder that has been breeding for x+ years, owns the dogs, knows the history of their dogs (life span/health issues/temperament, etc) does background/reference checks, and genuinely cares where the pup goes even though they may not have done health testing or any kind of titling?
Thanks again for any responses. :thanx:
Currently I am looking for a puppy at a reasonable price(~$1000) without having to sacrifice quality. I've been lurking in these forums, as well as others, and have come to the conclusion that most of the members only really support breeders that charge a ridiculous amount of money for a "pet" puppy. I've gone through the list on DPCA of breeders and contacted most of them in my area and I can't believe that they charge $1,500+ for a pet. A lot of the breeders in my area have titled dogs, Good/Excellent OFA ratings posted, vWD clear, etc which is great for the breed but NOT great for the consumer's pocket book. I understand that these breeders have spared no expense along with an invaluable amount of time to do the right thing by the breed but how can the average Joe afford to get one of these dogs as purely a pet?
Lets say, hypothetically, all the Z-factored dogs were gone and we finally get rid of that pesky vWD problem, and hips/elbows/eyes were all certified excellent... the best possible scenario for the Doberman. That would leave the basically the dogs of an even higher quality remaining that would drive the price up even further making the Doberman even more out of reach for the average person, right?
My question (sorry for the babble) what is considered an acceptable dog that doesn't come from a breeder that has basically run the gambit on their dogs? Is it wrong to buy from a breeder that has been breeding for x+ years, owns the dogs, knows the history of their dogs (life span/health issues/temperament, etc) does background/reference checks, and genuinely cares where the pup goes even though they may not have done health testing or any kind of titling?
Thanks again for any responses. :thanx: